Transas: Your Guide to a Very Trans AWP!
This visual guide features both off-site and official 2024 AWP (Association of Writers and Poets) Conference Events. These events take place in Kansas City, Missouri from Feb 7-10, 2024. The button above will take you to a more comprehensive text-only guide that should be screen-reader friendly. If you have any concerns related to the accessibility of the guide in the button above, please contact hello@earthtokb.com.
This guide is not created by AWP staff so we will not be able to answer questions about official conference proceedings. If you have questions about official conference events, please visit the AWP Conference Website to contact them directly (contact information is also available in the guide).
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TRANSAS Off-site events (2/7):
2/7 - 7pm - A Very Queer BIPOC Reading. Nighthawk (1228 Baltimore Ave, Kansas City, MO 64105). Central Texas publishers Abode Press, Infrarrealista Review, Host Publications, and Porter House Review have joined forces to feature all queer BIPOC writers! Readers: Monica Teresa Ortiz, Dee Lalo Garcia, Laura Villarreal, KB Brookins, Aureleo Sans, Bri Gonzales, Monica Prince, Stephanie Niu, M. Mick Powell, & more!! Accessibility: This venue is approximately 4 minutes walking distance from the convention center. A portable HEPA filter will be at this event. Please wear masks.
2/7 - 5-7pm - Transas City. Turnsol Books (1664 Broadway Blvd). A night of poetics + performance from trans & gender nonconforming artists in KCMO, followed by a trans open mic. Readers: rae atakpa, Ms. Korea Cavalli, Jade Green Hadiza, Canese Jarboe, Madison Monroe, Roya Rafiq, Erika Sakata, & Fountain City Slam Poets. Accessibility: ASL- English Interpretation available. Free entry for Trans people of color! Everyone else pay what you can. Vegan comfort food & sober pop-up will be present.
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TRANSAS Off-site events (2/8):
2/8 - 5-7pm - T4T: A Trans BIPOC Reading. Turnsol Books (1664 Broadway Blvd). Join Trans Black, Indigenous, and People of Color writers for an AWP poetry reading! Hosted by KB Brookins, featuring Kay Ulanday Barrett, SG Huerta, Taylor Johnson, and Alexis Aceves Garcia. Organized by KB Brookins and Alexis Aceves Garcia. Funded by Trans Equity Consulting. Accessibility: This will be a fully masked event. We’ll have extra masks at the front desk. The space is wheelchair accessible. There is a microphone at this reading. Full house for this venue is 40 people, so get there early!
2/8 - 6:30pm - Decompose AWP Launch. Kansas City Milwaukee Delicatessen Company (101 W. 9th St. Kansas City, MO 64105). Hosted by Megan Kim and Dare Williams. Readers include Torrin A. Greathouse, José Olivarez, Taylor Byas, and Gaia Rajan.
2/8 - 7:30pm - Here’s Hooligan. Kansas City Milwaukee Delicatessen Company (101 W. 9th St. Kansas City, MO 64105). Hooligan Mag & Cobra Milk at AWP. Hosted by Jo Blair Cipriano Zamora and Dia Roth. Readers include Meg Kim, Julián Martinez, Gem Arbogast, Rita Mookerjee, karla lamb, Hikari Leilani Miya, and Chen Chen.
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TRANSAS Off-site events (2/9):
2/9 - 1pm - Soft Speak Poetry Reading. PT’s Coffee - Crossroads (310 Southwest Blvd, Kansas City MO 64108). Join us for a soft-spoken lunch break with a cup of coffee and poetry! This will be a soft-spoken/ whisper/ ASMR- style reading, and we will have microphone and speaker. Readers: Kay E. Bancroft, KB Brookins, jason b. Crawford, Stephanie Hempel, K. Iver, Ae Hee, Lee, Ruben Quesada, Preeti Parikh, Jessica Q. Stark, and Kelly Weber. Accessibility: This will be a soft-spoken / whisper / ASMR-style reading. The event will have a microphone and speaker. PT's Coffee has a ramp into the store and is wheelchair accessible. The place fits around 50 people, with some bench seating and limited chair seating. Please wear masks.
2/9 - 6-8pm - Sundress Publications Off-Site Reading. Nimble Brewing (1735 Oak Street Kansas City, MO 64108). Join us for a Sundress publications reading to celebrate AWP! beestung readers: KB Brookins, Cat Ingrid Leeches, Crystal Odelle, Jess Silfa. Rouge Agent readers: Caitlin Cowan, Amy Haddad, Lenna Jawdat, Atia Sattar. Doubleback Review Readers: Madeleine Barnes, Mary Hawley, Ania Payne, Remi Recchia.The Wardrobe Readers: Asa Drake, Jae Nichelle. Accessibility: Nimble Brewing is wheelchair accessible, but is not a sober venue.
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TRANSAS Virtual events:
Beyond Bone: Black & Brown Disabled Poetics. This panel will have American Sign Language Interpretation and active description.
Queer & Trans Asians Writing as RebellionThis panel will have American Sign Language Interpretation and active description.
Writing Queer Stories for the Stage
Writing a Play or Musical on a Real Person
Virtual events are pre-recorded workshops that will be available to watch on-demand online starting from Wednesday, Feb 7 2024 through Thursday, March 7 2024
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TRANSAS Official Conference Events- 2/8:
f/Lawless: Writing Queer Sex. Level 2, Room 2505 AB.
Revision as Trans* Praxis. Level 2, Room 2503AB.
Reimagining Place: New Voices from the Midwest. Street Level, Room 2102A.
Queer As In: A Reading of Debut Trans & Nonbinary Poets. Street Level, Room 2209.
Centering the Margin: Editors on Editing Anthologies. Street Level, Room 2211.
Queer Speculation: Transing Genre, Transing Gender. Level 2, Room 2503AB.
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TRANSAS Official Conference Events- 2/9:
Transfigured Flesh: Shapeshifting, Embodiment & the Nonhuman in Trans Narratives. Level 3, Room 3501AB.
Women of New Fabulism & Speculative Literature: A Reading. Level 3, Room 3501AB.
Exhausted & Overwhelmed: Attempting Queer Joy in 2024, Level 2, Room 2504AB.
Widening the Circle: Queer/ Trans SWANA Writers on Navigating Space & Self. Street Level, Room 2102A
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TRANSAS Official Conference Events- 2/10:
We Belong: People of Color Accessing, Critiquing & Reshaping Artist Residencies. Level 2, Room 2503AB.
(Trans)cend: Trans Poetics in the Age of Anti-transness. Level 3, Room 3501EF
Writing Trans Sex. Level 2, Room 2504AB.
Be Gay, Do Crime: Teaching Queer & Trans Poetics in Dangerous Times. Street Level, Room 2103A.
Transgender Nonfiction: Memoir & Essays Beyond the Transition Narrative. Street Level Room 2215C.
Futures for SWANA Poetry. Level 2 Grand Ballroom B.
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TRANSAS Official Conference Events- 2/10:
Beyond Gay and Bi: Creating Diversity in Queer Characters. Street Level, Room 2103C.
The Trans Fantastic: Craft, Themes, Reception Level 2, Room 2504AB.
Lightning Readings by Writer to Writer Alumni. Bookfair stage: Level 3, Exhibit Halls D & E.
Nonbinary & Genderqueer Writers Discuss Working in a Time of Transphobic Crisis. Street Level, Room 2215A.
Not Just Surviving: Queer Poets Thriving in the Red. Street Level, Room 2103B.
Crafting Counternarratives in the Age of Anti-AAPI Hate. Level 2, Room 2102A
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